CBS First on Board for 99-cent iTunes TV Episodes

After being widely reported in recent weeks that Apple has been pushing television networks for 99 cent TV shows, one of the “big four” networks appears ready to reduce prices -- at least for some shows.

CBS CEO Les Moonves announced Thursday that his network would reduce prices on “some of its shows” to 99 cents -- a sharp reduction from today’s going rate of $1.99 per episode, according to MediaMemo and AppleInsider. It’s widely believed that Apple has been interested in launching lower-priced television show downloads to coincide with the iPad launch in late March.

Moonves said that “certain shows” would be priced at 99 cents, but the details were still being worked out as to which ones. The MediaMemo report also noted that other networks had also already agreed to lower prices, without specifically naming which ones.

"It’s possible that Moonves doesn’t plan to make any significant concessions on pricing -- CBS, like other networks, already offers some older shows, or new shows it wants to promote, at discount prices," the report said. "But the context of Moonves’ comments, which came during the company’s earnings call today, indicated that he was planning on changing his pricing structure on more than a one-off basis."

The CBS chief’s comments are the first time a major U.S. television network has publicly confirmed any new pricing structure.

Aside from CBS, the next likely candidate would be ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Corp. -- with Apple CEO Steve Jobs as its largest shareholder. Only last week the Disney chief praised the potential of the iPad and looked forward to his company creating new content for it, including interactive TV shows -- specifically singling out the popular ABC show Lost as a candidate.